Memorandum of understanding with Libya

The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) told journalists that the UK had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Libya concerning deportations. Put to him that this was a quite significant step forward for Libya, the PMOS said it was. It meant that we had MOU's with both Jordan and Libya which was obviously of considerable help with dealing with the deportation issues the Prime Minister set out before the summer break.

Inflation

Put to the PMOS that inflation had risen today due to the rising price of oil, and was No10 worried that the economy would suffer as a result, the PMOS said that we believed that the fundamentals of the economy were strong, as the records showed. He recommended that the journalist spoke to the Treasury for more information.

Public Sector Pensions

Asked if Downing Street was concerned about the impact on the public purse of the recent public sector pensions agreement, the PMOS said that in terms of the impact of the original deal, it was estimated that 85% of the savings would come from new entrants anyway. There were some 50,000 new people out of 550,000 who join every year. So the main impact was going to come from new entrants anyway. So it didn't actually shift the burden of the savings to any great degree.

Women Protesters

Asked if the Prime Minister would be meeting the women protesters whose sons had been killed in Iraq, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman (PMOS) said that whilst all people who delivered a petition were free to do so, it was very unusual for the Prime Minister to meet them.